Ethreain, the Lich, is a rangedintelligencehero that uses his abilities to slow his enemies down with his ice-based attacks, as well as giving a boost to ally defenses, and serves as a great teamfight ganker with his powerful ultimate. He can use Sacrifice to easily level up and keep his mana high, making him very good at harassing in the early stages of the game. While a relatively frail hero and mostly known as a support, he can prove to be a force to be reckoned and mighty foe to stand with as he can render the attempts of multiple enemies futile with his ultimate, Chain Frost. Lich is a powerful crowd controller and can easily turn a teamfight, or dominate in a lane.

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In life, the frost-mage Ethreain (not yet a Lich) had used the threat of destructive ice to enslave entire kingdoms. His subjects, aided by a few desperate magicians, eventually grew bold enough to ambush him. Armed with enough charmed rope to bind him forever, they tied the frost mage to adamant weights and dropped him in a pool known chiefly for being bottomless. It wasn't. He only fell for a year or so before an outcrop snagged him. There he rested, dead but undecaying, until the geomancer Anhil thought to verify the legend of the supposedly bottomless Black Pool. Anhil's plumbline snarled with the ropes that bound the drowned magician, and up he hauled an unexpected prize. Thinking that by rendering the dead undead, he could question the Lich about the properties of the pool, he removed the bindings and commenced a simple rite of resurrection. Even the descendants of Ethreain's enemies were long forgotten by time, so there were none to warn Anhil against imprudence. But he learned the error of his judgment almost immediately, as Lich threw off the shackles and consumed him.

Releases an orb of frost that bounces between nearby enemy units up to 10 times, slowing and damaging each time it hits.

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.93

Cast Range: 750 ( 925) (850, 1025)

Bounce Distance: 600

Number of Bounces: 10 (Infinite)

Bounce Delay: 0.2

Damage: 280/370/460 (370/460/550)

Move Speed Slow: 65%

Attack Speed Slow: 65

Slow Duration: 2.5

100/80/60

200/325/500

Increases damage and casting range. Removes the limit on the number of times Chain Frost can jump.

Can target and bounce to spell immune enemies. Does not slow or attempt to damage spell immune enemies. Slow persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.

Blocked upon cast or impact only as primary target. When blocked upon cast, it fully affects the primary target and continues to bounce. When blocked upon impact, it continues to bounce without affecting the primary target.

Modifiers

Chainfrost Slow: Dispellable with any dispel.

Almost universally considered the ultimate in frost magic, Ethreain's orb of frozen death strikes fear into those who dare stand against him.

Notes:

Chain Frost travels at a speed of 850.

The projectile bounces with a 0.2 second delay.

Can bounce on the same unit multiple times, but only when another target was hit between the bounces.

Healing Salve and Tango are basic regeneration requirements for heroes laning in the side lanes. On top of giving Lich a method to sustain his HP pool so that he does not get harassed out of lane, they can also be used to heal your lane's carry as well.

Clarity is optional but useful for Lich. Although he can replenish his mana via casting Sacrifice, his base intelligence is quite low and Sacrifice's mana conversion ratio and cooldown prevent it from being overly effective in the laning stage.

Animal Courier should always be purchased by Lich by default, as he does not require items in order to be effective.

Iron Branches are cheap and can give Lich good stats at the cost of inventory space. They can be used to build Mekansm components or upgrade your Magic Stick.

Early-game items:

Magic Stick is useful on all heroes, and in particular on supports, so buying one on Lich is highly recommended during laning. It can be upgraded into a Magic Wand for additional stats and more burst regen.

Boots of Speed are very powerful on Lich, as his innately high base movement speed already gives him some measure of mobility to allow him to harass and escape in the laning stage. Augmenting that with Boots will allow him to do even more, harassing more effectively with Frost Blast and even chasing enemies down.

Urn of Shadows is a useful utility item to build on Lich. On top of providing extra strength for more HP, the additional mana regen allows Lich to take advantage of his high intelligence growth, and the active can be used to heal teammates or apply some more damage to the enemy in ganks.

If a teammate is already building an Urn of Shadows, purchasing a Bracer instead will give Lich just as much HP, as well as bonuses in other stats. It can also be upgraded into a Drum of Endurance for even more stats and additional movement speed, as well as a mobility active to use in teamfights or while chasing/escaping.

Tranquil Boots are the best boots for Lich given his ability to sustain his mana pool with Sacrifice. The enhanced mobility allows Lich to do more in teamfights, as he is not expected to right-click enemies but rather get close enough to make use of his spells. The passive HP regen replenishes Lich's health pool while Sacrifice replenishes his mana pool, allowing him to remain on the map indefinitely without the need to return to base.

Mekansm is mandatory on any team, and Lich can carry one quite effectively. The item gives him stats across the board as well as armor, giving him more survivability, and the instant 250 HP heal is crucial in teamfights. The mana cost of the active is incidental to Lich since he can always stay at full mana by using Sacrifice.

Aghanim's Scepter greatly augments Lich's ability to deal damage in fights, as the increased damage and removal of the bounce limit removes the option for the enemy to simply wait out the spell or lead the ball into creep waves.

Town Portal Scroll is mandatory on all heroes, and especially on supports like Lich. Being able to show up to a fight to cast his spells and use his items is critical, and showing up to counter-gank and breaking up the enemy's chase with Chain Frost can change the tide of a game under the right circumstances.

Situational items:

Blink Dagger is powerful on Lich as he can instantly get within range to cast Frost Blast on an enemy, or jump in to cast Chain Frost on an unsuspecting group of enemy heroes. It also improves his map mobility as he can easily jump over impassable terrain to reach his destination faster.

Force Staff is a very useful utility item on all supports, and is relatively easy to build as well. The ability to quickly displace allies and enemies is very powerful as Lich's spells all depend greatly on positioning, while the item's bonuses give Lich a bigger mana pool and some more HP regen.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity is a comparatively cheap utility item that is very powerful on Lich. It enhances his movement speed while giving him a bigger mana pool and great amounts of mana regen, making him much more mobile and allowing him to spam his spells much more frequently. Most importantly though, the active ability allows him to instantly hard-disable an enemy at range, something he otherwise lacks.

Scythe of Vyse is a very powerful item on any support hero, although it is also very expensive. The massive intelligence bonus and mana regen allows Lich to cast his spells with almost no limit, and the additional strength also gives him survivability. However, its most important feature is the ability to instantly hard-disable an enemy and prevent them from using items, a powerful ability in late-game teamfights.

Shiva's Guard gives Lich a bigger mana pool and armor that stacks with Ice Armor, allowing him to weather physical attacks better. The active and passive auras also synergize well with Lich's other abilities, greatly debilitating the enemy's movement and attack speed.

Veil of Discord is a good utility support item that can greatly benefit Lich. The extra stats and armor give Lich more survivability, while the large intelligence bonus gives him a larger mana pool to work with. The active can greatly enhance the effectiveness of all of Lich's nukes, particularly Chain Frost.

Rod of Atos gives Lich many good benefits. The extra HP greatly increases Lich's survivability and the intelligence gives him a larger mana pool. More importantly, however, the item's active ability can be used to slow an enemy from a very long range and can be followed by Frost Blast.

Solar Crest is a good utility support item as Lich is a ranged hero that does not get into the thick of battles. Using the active ability on an enemy during a gank will allow teammates to capitalize on any slows you place on them, and using it on an ally synergizes with Ice Armor, giving them immense physical survivability as it grants evasion as well as armor. Lastly, it can be used to reduce Roshan's armor and induce a miss chance on his attacks, making Aegis attempts more efficient.

Ghost Scepter is very useful on Lich as it gives him stats across the board and a method with which he can evade physical damage, giving him time to cast more spells if he is jumped on by the enemy's carry.

Aether Lens can boost Lich's nuking power tremendously and is very easy to build. It increases the size of Lich's mana pool, boosting the utility of Sacrifice and facilitating his ability to cast his full spell combo in fights (particularly Chain Frost due to its extremely high mana cost), while also providing increased HP regen to keep him out in the field more often. It also boosts the cast range on all of Lich's spells, allowing him to nuke enemies from a safer distance, and increases the amount of damage that his nukes deal.

Pipe of Insight is a powerful utility item to build for your team, as it can protect them from magic nukes, synergizing with your ability to protect them from physical damage by casting Ice Armor on them. The passive HP regen also allows Lich to maintain his HP pool without returning to base to heal, while Sacrifice maintains his mana pool.

Refresher Orb will increase Lich's damage output with Chain Frost by a very large margin, especially if it is a follow-up to large disabling teamfight abilities. It is highly recommended to build up your mana pool first though, as Chain Frost itself costs 500 mana at level 3, meaning that the combo will cost upwards of 1375 mana, excluding other spells.

Resurrected by a curious geomancer, Ethreain threw off his shackles, and immediately Sacrificed his savior for mana. Finally freed from the depths of the Black Pool, the Lich returns to wreak icy destruction on the world. Shielding his followers with Ice Armor, Ethreain floats across the battlefield to Frost Blast any who cross him. A frozen orb descends on his foes, traveling from one body to the next until the Chain Frost brings all opposition to their knees.

In the first iteration of Invoker's abilities, when the order of his three orbs determined the spell that was invoked, Frost Nova was one of his abilities and functioned almost identically to the current spell, and was mapped to Quas Quas Exort. Crystal Maiden also had the same Frost Nova ability with small differences in numbers.

Lich is almost entirely based on a Warcraft 3 hero. His title (Lich), DotA name (Kel'Thuzad) and all his spells except the ultimate are same as the original Warcraft 3 hero,[1] although entirely rebalanced around Dota.

In his transition to Dota2, he kept his title (Lich), but his name got changed due to copyright reasons, since Kel'Thuzad is a notable character from the Warcraft universe.[2]

Lich's response Play "Dead man drifting." is a reference to the line Play "Dead man walking." spoken by the Warcraft 3 hero.[3]

Anatomically, Lich's cranium has no visible sutures, another proof of his age.

Lich's response Play "And so the dead will bury the dead" is a reference from Bible (Luke 9:59-60), where Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead,” in response to a disciple who wanted to bury his father before committing himself to the Lord.

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